RAMSEY CROOKALL

24th  August

Afternoon Report

The FTSE 100  is trading slightly  lower. Admiral Group is down 7.6% following a mixed response to its 1H results. U.S. stock market futures stay down; the DJIA front month futures contract is down 0.7% and S&P 500 contract 0.8% lower, ndicating a negative start on Wall Street.

Admiral was the worst performer on the FTSE 100, losing despite pre-tax profits growing by 27%. However, according to a Thomson Reuters poll, the result was a slight miss.

Gold, copper and silver prices were on the decline in the morning, hitting shares in the mining sector with Randgold Resources, Fresnillo and Vedanta Resources among the fallers. Sector peer BHP Billiton, however, was making small gains after seeing a 35.9% jump in revenue in the year ended June. The final dividend was upped by 22%.

Outsourcing firm Serco fell despite saying it overcame UK and US headwinds to deliver a 12.2% rise in adjusted pre-tax profit, driven by its international portfolio.

ENRC, Catlin and WS Atkins were also among the fallers after going ex-dividend.

On the rise, however, are the financials, with Man Group, RBS, Lloyds, Barclays and ICAP posting decent gains.

Advertising and marketing group WPP, led by chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, rose saying the "post-Lehman bounce-back" has continued as it posted pre-tax profit growth of 37% on sales that grew 6.1% in the six months to 30 June.

Africa-focused oil giant Tullow Oil was firmer after it reported a huge surge in sales and profits in the six months ended 30 June, helped by increased production from the Jubilee field off Ghana and higher commodity prices.

THE FTSE 100 at 12:00                Down        5           @       5123

THE DOW JONES closed                 Up          322         @       11176                        NASDAQ COM closed                    Up          100         @       2446                              

Commodities

Spot Gold $/Oz           $1845 Brent Crude Oil          $108.97 September Delivery   

Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.6504 GBP - EURO          1.1418